Return of Reckoning

Dear Devs!

My thoughts on sc.

You cannot and would not want to forcefully change people's behavior in a game. It is not worth killing the game.

No need for stick or carrot.

Motivation with carrots lasts exactly until they are acquired. (New sc weapon..., only city items etc) no one will play with these afterwards because they are not fun to play.

The stick is not a good method either.
I've tested it and examined it several times. The matchmaking system puts
PUG solo healer tankless players against premade. It happens on both sides at the same time that there would/have been at least 2 premade and 2 party pug on both sides. Yet the pug fights the premade in all cases.

Despite this, the pug does not and wont group up. No matter how big the stick is he doesn't want to he can't. It is a waste to force and try to force it on them.

The current matchmaking is ruining everyone’s fun. The pug is in the wc afking , the premade is in front of the wc afking. I can't imagine worse matchmaking to be honest.

Solo sc would be a very good option and would solve the problem if it wasn't 5v2 in many cases.
I don't think it's that difficult to program it to engage players if they already accept the invitation.

People like to play sc. They still q sc despite everything being done to make it unenjoyable.

But pug won't make premaed, everyone should accepts it.

The ranked sc is a nice matchmaking system that has been implemented with the knowledge I think it is all there. It would be nice if nowadays the will was there to make it fun.

Pug vs premade is possible and on live not so rarely pug were putting quite a fight, even win some. But here scen rules are too punishing and there is no comeback mechanics so all players that care about not dying for the sake of dying aka players that could make the difference stay at wc or stop queuing. So you end up with lowest quality pug vs stacked premade all that into the meat grinder where the end result is farm or be farmed

Sc design also plays a big role. Scenarios with several open flags like nordenwatch make it much easier for pugs to score points by avoiding/splitting up the enemy. Scenarios like gromril junction are much worse in this regard, because you force the hnderdog to get slaughtered again and again if they try to play the objectives.

saupreusse wrote: Tue Sep 02, 2025 9:43 am Sc design also plays a big role. Scenarios with several open flags like nordenwatch make it much easier for pugs to score points by avoiding/splitting up the enemy. Scenarios like gromril junction are much worse in this regard, because you force the hnderdog to get slaughtered again and again if they try to play the objectives.

This is definitely an issue, but only as long as they prioritize pug vs premade. Pug V Pug, it's less of an issue as mistakes are more prone to happen shifting the fight. Right now the queue works not in some mysterious way. No one will tell us how it works, but if you play a solo healer, chances of having 6+ other healers is greater than 50%. If solo dps chances of having a single healer is less than 10%

Flawed design that no one wants to fix.

Simple solution -

Ranked (renamed to group and open all scenarios) same rewards - 2-6 man groups go into that queue, must be balanced. Turn off enemy names and guild names.

Normal/Solo renamed Normal - all solo - no balance required to start, but should prioritize 2/2/2 - standard rewards.